


by a sliver

by BeStillMySlashyHeart



Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:13:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25233691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeStillMySlashyHeart/pseuds/BeStillMySlashyHeart
Summary: When Joe die gruesomely on a mission, it's Nicky's turn to wait breathlessly for him to wake up.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 35
Kudos: 1761





	by a sliver

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: In the movie we saw Joe freaking out twice when Nicky was taking a bit too long to respawn and was wondering if you could write something where the roles were reversed and it was Joe taking a bit too long to come back?

Joe shoved Andy out of the way and the razor wire ripped through his body. Nicky watched as it carved him up, his head flung backwards as it dug deep into his neck. He didn’t waste his breath calling out Joe’s name, didn’t spare his attention for longer than a heartbeat before returning his focus to the human traffickers shooting at them from behind hostages. 

If he’d spared any longer he might have seen how the wire had cut his neck nearly clean off, his head held to his body by only a thin strip of his spine. None of them had even been beheaded before; it was the one death they were uncertain they could come back from, after all how does one heal from a missing head? 

“Nicky,” Andy came up beside him. Her leg was bleeding but she had already tied a tourniquet so Nicky pushed it to the back of his mind. 

“There are at least a dozen more around the side,” Nicky told her. Nile had already rounded the building, Nicky about to follow when Joe went down. He stayed behind to cover Andy until Joe was back on his feet. A quick glance over his shoulder showed Joe still laying on the ground, his body a mess. 

Nicky shot two more men before the image fully processed. He froze, his body already half turned back to Joe when Andy stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “There are 47 people in that building,” she reminded him. “We need to get them out.” She was right, of course she was right, but the fact that she was wasting the time and breath to remind him of that fact, terrified him.

He shot another two men as he retreated towards Joe’s body.

“Nicky!” Andy called. She didn’t bother telling him to stop, though.

“Nile needs backup,” he told her. Another few steps and he had to take a large one to get to the other side of Joe’s body. He crouched down to his knees and covered Andy as she went after Nile. With the way clear, he killed the rest of the men that he could see. 

Once everybody was dead, he finally lowered his gaze to Joe. His eyes were open, his mouth agape in a silenced shout, and there was a terrifying amount of blood. Nicky swallowed the bile in his throat and reached for Joe’s neck, carefully feeling around to see if it was still attached, if it had begun healing yet.

If it had, he couldn’t tell. 

A shout arose from the building and Nicky raised his gun once more. For the next few minutes, he provided cover as Andy led the victims from the building and into the trucks they had ready behind him. Not once did he move from his spot next to Joe. 

Nile joined them before long, the bad guys all dead and most of the victims saved. 

Joe hadn’t moved. 

Nile came running up to them and stuttered to a stop at the sight. Breathless, she looked from Joe to Nicky to Andy. Andy must have made some gesture from behind him because Nile’s face shuttered and she left without a word to help get everyone into the trucks.

Nicky crawled along Joe’s body until he could pull his head into his lap. It was still loose.

“Nicky,” Andy said quietly.

“No,” he stopped her. He didn’t want to hear it.

But Andy had never been deterred by anything in her life. “It’s been over half an hour,” she told him, as if he hadn’t been counting the minutes. It was a long time, he knew. Longer than it had ever taken, including the first time. 

“No,” he said again. It wasn’t Joe’s time. Not yet.

Andy made a noise like she was going to say something more but she turned away without speaking. Nicky stared down at Joe, his eyes cataloging his every wound trying to gauge if they had healed any, and listened to the sounds of Nile and Andy preparing to leave. 

“Nicky.” It was Nile this time. “We have to go. We can’t stay here.”

“Fine.” He stowed his weapons and hauled Joe into his arms, taking care to keep his head tucked into his shoulder as he rose to his feet. Nile was crying, her face a picture of despair. He ignored the tears and the look she gave him and carefully carried Joe back to the vehicle. Andy said nothing as he put Joe in the backseat and climbed in after. 

They drove in silence for half an hour, all of them unwilling to say anything that might cover up the sound of Joe’s-

Joe coughed once then turned his head and spat blood on the back of Nile’s seat. Andy slammed on the breaks when Nile let out a happy shout.

Nicky ignored both of them, choosing instead to lean over Joe and press their foreheads together. “If you ever do that to me again I swear I will put garlic in all of my food for a decade.” 

Joe reached for the back of Nicky’s head and held him close. “I don’t know what I did to deserve such a threat but I promise never to do it again.”

“It’s been an hour,” Nicky told him quietly. “An _hour_.”

Joe cursed softly. He tilted Nicky’s head until their eyes met. “Never again,” he promised. “But please, no garlic.”

Nicky kissed him. His mouth tasted of blood but he didn’t care. It was not the first time they’d shared a bloody kiss and it would not be the last. What mattered was that Joe was alive to kiss him back. 

Two throats cleared loudly. Joe pulled back with a chuckle. Nicky chased him, but Joe held off long enough to turn to the women in the front seat. “Sorry for worrying you,” he told them cheerfully.

“Who was worried?” Nile scoffed. “We weren’t worried.”

Andy only laughed and passed back a bottle of water. “Clean yourself up. You smell disgusting.”

“You two really know how to make a man feel special.”

“You’ve got Nicky for that,” Nile reminded him. “We’re here to keep your ego in check to balance him out.”

“Never,” Joe grinned. He took a large swig of water, swished it around, opened the door just as Andy started driving again, and spat out the side of the truck. He did it twice before before downing the rest.

When the bottle was empty he dropped it to their feet and pulled Nicky close. “Now. Where were we?”


End file.
